Qatar’s Cabinet voiced “regret and surprise” at the decision by the fellow-members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, but said Doha would not pull out its own envoys and that it remained committed to GCC security and stability.

The Saudi-led trio said they had acted because Qatar failed to honor a GCC agreement signed on Nov. 23 not to back “anyone threatening the security and stability of the GCC whether as groups or individuals – via direct security work or through political influence, and not to support hostile media.”

He said Qaradawi’s sermons, in which he criticizes the governments of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, were seen as an attack on their sovereignty. The UAE summoned the Qatari ambassador last month to protest Doha’s silence on the matter. The Egyptian-born preacher has close ties with the Brotherhood.

“It’s 15 years of Qatar ... supporting forces of change in the region. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are status quo powers in the region, and they were annoyed,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political science professor at Emirates University.

Kuwait and Oman did not join the diplomatic rebuke to Qatar. Kuwait’s parliament Speaker Marzouq Al Ghanim said he was concerned by its implications. Oman has not commented.

Qatar’s stock market tumbled 2.3 percent after Wednesday’s announcement. There is significant cross-border investment in the stock markets of GCC countries by investors from other GCC nations. Saudi investors play a major role in all GCC markets. Saudi Arabia has tried for two years to align the foreign and security policies of Sunni-ruled GCC states to combat what it sees as aggression by Shiite Iran, its regional arch-rival.

Qatar has been a maverick in the conservative Gulf region, backing Islamist movements in Egypt, Syria and elsewhere that are viewed with suspicion or hostility by some GCC members.

The latest row is a challenge for Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar’s youthful new ruler who suggested when he succeeded his father in June that he would pursue Doha’s assertive, independent-minded foreign policy.

Saudi and other Gulf Arab officials, as well as Egypt’s military-backed rulers often complain about Al-Jazeera, which they see as openly pro-Brotherhood and critical of their own governments. Al-Jazeera says it is an independent news service giving a voice to everyone in the Middle East.

An Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Badr Abdelatty, denied an assertion by Egyptian airport sources cited by Reuters that Qatari citizens would be subject to extra security screening measures to make sure they were not involved in “hostile acts” against Egypt. He said the report was nonsense.

But Abdelatty expressed understanding for the withdrawal of ambassadors, saying Qatar had to move away from policies and positions that fragmented Arab unity.

He said the Egyptian ambassador to Qatar had been back in Cairo since early February. “Our decision to keep him here is a political decision. We have specific demands ... not to interfere in our internal affairs,” he said.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain said they had acted after GCC foreign ministers meeting in Riyadh Tuesday failed to persuade Qatar to implement the Nov. 23 accord.

Qatar, which also backed Libyan rebels who toppled Moammar Gaddafi, says it supports Arab people against oppression.

A source close to the Saudi government said pressure on Qatar would continue until it changed its policies. “They have to divert their position on many issues and we are waiting for real signs of this, not just talk.”